The Hawaii Convention Center is scheduled to host 16 meetings next year involving out-of-town attendees, down from 22 conventions in 2012. And even though the number of convention-related hotel room bookings is expected to increase by about 100,000 year over year, it still will fall well below the targeted number of 700,000 room nights.

The convention center has struggled to regain momentum since the recession of 2007-2009. It had its best year in 2005, when it hosted 46 meetings accounting for 706,489 hotel room nights.

Hospitality industry executives say they are disappointed by the most recent numbers, and are working with the convention center’s management company, SMG Hawaii, and other stakeholders to turn things around.

“I’m not satisfied with it,” said Jon Conching, regional vice president of sales and marketing for Hilton Hawaii. He acknowledges that the convention center has been a boon to the meetings and convention industry in the state — without it, only smaller events could be held at the hotels — so at least the state has entered the market.

“Prior to the center opening up in 1998 we had no answer for those customers that couldn’t fit in the Hilton or the Sheraton and didn’t want to split their meetings between two large hotels,” Conching said. “So finally, when it opened in 1998, it definitely really opened us up to a market segment we were not able to approach before.”

But is it enough? All sides seem to agree the convention center should provide a better draw.

To help make progress, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has hired Strategic Advisory Group, which will work in conjunction with a local industry advisory group, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Hawaii Convention Center to create a new strategy for the property.

“We have hired a consultant to help us analyze and refine our sales and marketing approach, fine tune our target audience and look to better develop our international convention business, which is now possible because of the increase in [air-seat] inventory giving us the ability to now more effectively go after larger groups,” HTA Vice President of Brand Management David Uchiyama told PBN in an email this week while traveling for business on the Mainland.

Officials with Strategic Advisory Group could not be reached for comment.

Despite having fewer bookings in 2013 than it did this year, Hawaii Convention Center General Manager Joe Davis says next year will mark a turnaround for the state’s convention center. He points to increases in both the number of attendees and the associated number of hotel room nights — projected to top 500,000 — as reasons for his optimism.

In addition to the meetings involving out-of-town attendees, the property typically hosts between 100 and 150 local conventions per year.

The Strategic Advisory Group’s work will help the HVCB and the convention center better align and focus the day-to-day business of the center, Davis said. Part of that ongoing effort is to review targets and the formula used to count room nights.

“The 700,000 — long story short — will probably no longer be a meaningful benchmark,” Davis said. Instead, a revised methodology will be consistent with convention center industry standards across the country. That formula will drop the hotel room nights added on before and after a convention, which Hawaii currently uses in its calculations.

“We’re going now to an industry standard way of calculation,” Davis said. The calculation will be based more on traditional metrics of the number of room nights over the length of a conference.

The actual targets are yet to be determined, Davis said.

In addition, the HTA is overseeing the restructuring of the overall sales and marketing efforts for the meetings convention and incentive business.

Next year may be the beginning of a turnaround for the convention center, but Davis will not be around to see it happen. He confirmed his impending retirement, which he said will take effect Jan. 4.

Assistant General Manager Randy Tanaka will be the interim general manager. Davis said SMG Hawaii, which is under contract with the HTA to operate the convention center through Dec. 31, 2013, is not recruiting a general manager. But he could not confirm whether Tanaka will be the permanent general manager.

“We’re entering an interesting year. Who’s to say? I think he could,” Davis said. “Ultimately, we will see what ’13 brings. To me, it’s an exciting year, but it’s time for me to look at other opportunities, take a little time with the family and enjoy myself a little more.”

Davis said he does not expect major changes will take place in the operation of the convention center, other than tweaks to the sales and marketing strategies.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time rolling out some significant effort to drive new business, and that’s where I suspect you’ll see some adjustments,” Davis said.